Good afternoon everyone. I am joined today by
my Clerk of the Executive Council, Robert Thompson.

Earlier this week in Ottawa, the province of
Newfoundland and Labrador was signatory to an agreement with the federal
government and the other Canadian provinces and territories entitled "A
Ten Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care."

I was pleased, as premier of this great
province, to sign this agreement on behalf of all Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians, as the monies resulting from this deal will in fact assist
this province in strengthening our health care system.

It was a hard, long week, filled with tense
but productive negotiations.

Every provincial and territorial leader,
along with the Prime Minister, clearly recognized the serious issues facing
our country’s health care system and we were collectively and individually
determined to come to an agreement for the benefit of all Canadians.

As you watched throughout the week, I’m
sure there seemed times when a deal may not be possible - when the two sides
seemed too far apart.

However, I can tell you, having been inside
the four walls of those meeting rooms, we as a group were determined to work
through the issues. It took longer than we anticipated, but there was too
much at stake to walk away from the table.

At stake, was the very future of our health
care system.

A system where costs are growing faster than
we can keep up, wait times continue to grow, and in a province like
Newfoundland and Labrador this is compounded by our serious fiscal situation
which we are all working hard to correct.

Let me first of all lay out for you exactly
what this deal means for this province. Generally speaking, we as a province
were able to accomplish four main things at this meeting.

First of all, we were able to secure, along
with the other provinces and territories, significant additional health care
funding. For Newfoundland and Labrador, the new agreement will result in
approximately an additional $293 million over the next six years.

Secondly, we were able to secure additional
equalization funding as well as a very important meeting.

This meeting will be another First Ministers’
Meeting consisting of all premiers and the Prime Minister, specifically to
discuss renewing and strengthening the equalization program, and I look
forward to that meeting in October.

The specific progress we made on equalization
at this meeting means that the federal government has now agreed to
implement a floor on equalization, meaning that into the future the total
pot of money for equalization recipient provinces will not go below a
certain pre-determined level.

This provides stability and predictability,
and is a good step forward to equalization reform. It will mean at least $40
million additional money for the province in 2005-2006 fiscal year, possibly
more.

A third achievement for us at this meeting is
very significant specifically for the residents of Labrador.

At the recent Council of the Federation
Meeting at Niagra-On-The-Lake, the territorial leaders raised with the
premiers the issue of medical travel costs for people in their regions.

The premiers agreed to make a request of the
Prime Minister at this First Ministers’ Meeting, to cover these costs.

At the time, I spoke up and indicated that
the people of Labrador were in the exact same position as those residents
living in the territories, and asked that we as premiers include the people
of Labrador as well.

I am so pleased to say today that we were
able to accomplish this, and a part of the final agreement includes funding
for travel costs associated with medical travel for the people of the north
including Labrador.

Finally, and probably most significant for
the people of this province, I was able to secure from the Prime Minister a
commitment to have our agreement regarding the Atlantic Accord finalized
before the next First Ministers’ Meeting on October 26th.

I have said many times in the past that I
have the Prime Minister’s commitment to get this deal finalized so that
the province can finally start to receive 100 percent of our provincial
offshore royalties.

I have not been satisfied that this file has
been moving along as quickly as I would like, however I also recognize that
it has been a very busy few months for the Prime Minister and his new
government since the June election.

I was willing to give the federal government
time to get to work on this commitment which was made to me personally
during the federal election, and I felt that the time had come to finalize
the deal.

I am pleased to say that the Prime Minister,
in a room of my colleagues, reiterated his willingness and commitment to
finalize details prior to the October First Ministers’ Meeting.

In fact, as we began the final news
conference in the early hours of Thursday morning, Finance Minister Ralph
Goodale approached Minister Sullivan and said that work would begin
immediately.

Another historic outcome of this meeting was
for the aboriginal peoples of Canada. The meetings between the Prime
Minister, premiers and aboriginal leaders resulted in an agreement for a
fund of 700 million dollars to address aboriginal health issues.

This fund is to cover a five year period. The
money will not be distributed on a per capita basis, and much of it will be
distributed on an application-based system.

I commit as premier of this province, to work
diligently with the aboriginal leaders of Newfoundland and Labrador, to
ensure our aboriginal people reap maximum benefits from this new money.

Clearly, this First Ministers’ Meeting was
a great success for Newfoundland and Labrador and the country as a whole.

As a matter of fact, many of my colleagues
who have been around the table for much longer than I, commented that this
was the most successful First Ministers’ Meeting they had ever
participated in.

I was pleased to be a part of that, and to
make my contribution on behalf of Newfoundland and Labrador.

We all know that we have a very serious
fiscal situation in Newfoundland and Labrador. In my opening remarks at the
meeting, I reiterated the seriousness of our position.

In this province, we are borrowing
substantial amounts of money just to pay for the health care services we
currently provide. There was a lot of talk around that table about reform
and sustainability, and there were discussions of new programs and
initiatives.

I made it very clear to the Prime Minister,
that in this province, we cannot afford the programs and services that we
currently offer and we will be in no position to take on any new programs
until we can afford to sustain the system we have today.

While this meeting was a success for this
province, I want Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to understand very clearly
that the new money we were able to secure from the federal government will
not solve all of our problems.

We are in a very deep hole in this province
and we have a long way to go before we dig ourselves completely out of that
hole.

This money will certainly be a great first
step and contribute significantly on our road to fiscal health, however it
is not a miraculous answer to all of our financial woes.

Those who suggest otherwise are simply
irresponsible or simply do not understand our fiscal situation.

In 2004-05, this province will receive about
$16 million in CHT, approximately $10 million in the Wait Time Fund (for
which all the rules are not sorted out), and $8 million for medical
equipment.

There will be no extra money in equalization
in the current year given that we already had floor protection under the
Atlantic Accord. Therefore, this funding does not solve the $200-300 million
funding gap for our health system.

In 05/06, we will get $40 million in CHT (up
from $16m in 04/05), and this will grow by 6% a year.

There are some spending obligations from this
funding in the area of home care which we have not yet finalized.

Therefore, this $40 million is useful but not
a sufficient amount compared to the growth of health spending in recent
years, which has often been closer to $80-100 million per year.

We still need to finance the balance.

Equalization will help in part, but we do not
yet know the allocation formula for equalization for future years.

So clearly, this new money does not go all
the way toward addressing our fiscal issues, but I do not want to
underestimate the value of what we as a province accomplished at the First
Ministers’ Meeting.

Any and all new monies flowing into this
province are welcomed and desperately needed, and my commitment to the
people of this province is that we will put this money to the best use
possible, for a better health care system and a brighter future for
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Thank you and I will now take your questions.

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